Unfortunately today is the official day for Winter in Beijing. We are also given the heated air for our rooms. But I am not turning it on because it is still not below freezing. It sits at 5 degrees or in the wee early morning and that is about the time for me to get up and get ready for the day.
Anyway, I got my students out and about working on the survey for their web based project. That was really fun to watch. Some of my students only aproached the women so I believe their survey is skewed. Some were corrected by a lday professor who must be good in statistics. She criticised that their survey was very biased. Although my students were not too happy with the corrections, they were glad that some one stopped by to teach them a thing or two. I am also glad that they learned from someone else. I am not always right.After the survey, I treated to the first 5 persons that can reach the MaCDonald's along the way. Well I gave out 10 of such ice creams. Many of them also treated themselves to the MaCDonald meals.
Yesterday I brought the High Flyers out. Today I brought Victors out. But after the survey, I went to Anzhen Hospital to pay Gail a visit. She is the lady from Mongolia who is working with Tibetan children with a hole in the heart or heart diseases. It was my first time in the Anzhen Hospital. I never liked hospitals and I still don't. I was rather lost. One of the orderly was not so pleasant. He pointed to the way out but I could not figure out what way it was. Then I found another doctor who told me the way. Wow...what an enlightenment! There is a building for those who are operated on and one building for those who are not operated on. So I made my way to the building. Somehow by default, I made a wrong turn and went round the building. I missed the main entrance. I managed to find another set of doors and then pushed the button for the lift. The lift opened with an operator and she told me that I am not allowed to use the lift. I told her softly (when you are in someone's mercy) that I didn't know and it was my first time. She reluctantly allowed me and before long I was on the floor. A door was left ajar and that led to the ward. This was truly amazing because the entire ward was supposed to be sealed off and no one enters unless you have an access card. So somehow God opened all the doors and I went right in.
I looked for the registration counter. Found a very fierce nurse on duty. She was pretty busy and then asked for Gail. She couldn't understand me. Then I said "西藏" and she immediately pointed me to Dr Lee who brought me to visit with a tibetan couple. Their little daughter was no more than 16 months old. She was smiling the broadest smile and tomorrow she may be operated on if she is well.
You see, last night Gary, another of the team from Touching Hearts in Tibet, told us that Gail will be on 4th floor. But we didn't know there are more than one building. If Joshua was here, he would probably be able to guide me better. So I went for lunch at Kang Shi Fu Noodles. I then walked around Anzhen Li to find out more about the place. To my pleasant surprise I found more food stores. There is a Sizzler there, a Starbucks, Shabu Shabu, Sakae Sushi and Yoshinoya. One of the buildings even have a department store. But most parts of the area is a residential area. I would say the area is so quiet on the inside you won't even know there is a major department store in it.
I finally saw Gail at three pm. I saw she was tired. She related to me that the 5 kids that are now here have been here since Sunday. Because their cases are so tough, it took a very long time to get them ready for the operation. One of the boys that came nearly died because of a lack of oxygen due to the poor condition of his heart. The girl I met at one of the rooms will be operated on tomorrow morning. So please pray for the family. Gail told me she was alone throughout the last two weeks to look after the children. She was anxious when the parents started crying so she prays constantly. Please pray for Gail. She needs to sleep. Tomorrow together with three boys, I will be relieving her for a while.
I gave Gail some money to buy food for the families. She told me that it would be good for them to have fruits. So together we went and bought some for the families. She also told me that the Tibetan families that are here never left their hometown until now so they are very suspicious of strangers. She does not have much money. So pray that there will be funds.
Many of the members in the team are not funded. Pray for wisdom to look for funds and pray that the Lord will touch many to donate.
I better go to bed. Tomorrow I am going to Gu Gong one more time. This time, I hope to see more buildings. It will be cold tomorrow. Pray that my students know how to keep warm.
